“The wetland is our cooking pot”: Implications of latent symbolism of Language use on persistent conflicts in trans-boundary wetlands in Uganda

It is widely accepted that high competition over transboundary resources createsconflicts between competing parties. Although such conflicts may differ greatly in nature and dimension, often times they result from what competing parties do and say. While the actions attract a lot of attention from the public, less attention is given to the symbolic expressions used by conflicting communities. Using the transboundary conflicts in Namatala wetland in Eastern Uganda, this paper examines the language used by conflicting communities and highlights the symbolism embedded in the language. The study adopteda qualitative approach with8 focus group discussions and 12 key informant interviews. Results indicate that language is used to depict power differences, social class struggles and uncertainty about their future.The article illustrates how such symbolism contributes to the persistence of the conflict. Therefore, it is important to understand the expression of feelings attached to the resource in order to get meaningful and sustainable mechanisms of managing the conflict.